UPDATE: Around 11 a.m. ET, a source told Pro Football Talk that Tony Romo will not have surgery on his fractured left clavicle and will miss approximately eight weeks.

Cowboys’ quarterback Tony Romo left Sunday’s game with what has now been ruled as a fractured left clavicle, according to multiple sources including the Associated Press. Romo left in the third quarter after being sacked and driven into the turf. Romo could be seen roaming the sideline with his left arm in a sling with 8:30 left in the fourth quarter.

This is the second time in the first two weeks of the season that the Cowboys have lost a star player to injury. In their Week 1 matchup with the New York Giants, wide receiver Dez Bryant broke his foot and underwent surgery earlier this week. The timeline for Bryant’s return has fluctuated, but that is of little concern for Dallas at this point.

Anytime a team loses one starter on offense it is a big deal, but losing a No. 1 wide receiver and the starting quarterback in back-to-back weeks is a brutal two-week stretch for any team.

Romo has fractured his left clavicle before — the last time being in October 2010 against the New York Giants — and it remains to be seen how this will affect his recovery from a possible surgery this time around. The problem isn’t with the surgery itself, but rather that it is occurring in the same spot as his fractured clavicle in 2010.

Anytime an injury occurs in the same place more than once, caution should be taken to ensure that further injury cannot cause loss of normal function. Thoughts of this nature are something that professional athletes need to think about because they will have a life outside of football at some point. Repeated broken or fractured bones are not much different than when players suffer several concussions, and this will be something that Romo needs to think about in the near future.

The face of Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones said it all when Romo was headed to the locker room, and it was probably mimicked on the faces of Cowboys’ fans around the world. For Dallas’ sake, they had better hope that Brandon Weeden and the Cowboys’ defense can be effective enough to keep the team in the NFC East race.